An Experiment in Staff Training: The Advanced Training Center of the Internal Revenue Service.

Abstract The chief difficulties that have been encountered can be traced to the astonishing speed with which the program got under way after Congress appropriated the funds for the ATC. The result was that there was insufficient knowledge of the program and a good deal of personal inconvenience on the part of applicants. More time to permit adequate distribution of information before the men apply and accept appointment should take care of this problem. Since most of the men have been away from school work for a good number of years, they had serious difficulty in adjusting themselves to the discipline of academic life. The differences between experience backgrounds has raised difficult problems in designing courses in the area of auditing and income tax accounting. To a smaller extent, some differences in educational background have raised problems in the planning of nonaccounting and nontax courses. Probably these difficulties can be reduced by the introduction of more flexibility into the curriculum. Intensive study is now being given to the curriculum and grading questions on the basis of actual experience, in order to make all advisable changes effective before the second semester training begins. A good deal of interest in and enthusiasm for the Advanced Training Center has been present in the Internal Revenue Service and at the University of Michigan. The co-operation and assistance from both has been exceptional and very encouraging. Interest also has been demonstrated by requests for admission from persons not employed by the Internal Revenue Service; however, since there is no authorization for extending the training program beyond the Internal Revenue Service, these requests had to be refused. Under our system of self-assessment of income taxes, co-operation between the taxpayers and the representatives of the Government is essential if we are to avoid the noncompliance difficulties which have been so grave in some other countries.